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Sustaining and developing non-profit social services
12 October 2009
The economic downturn has seen escalating numbers of people turn to emergency relief services for assistance. With shrinking margins between the costs of delivering social services and funding levels, what does this mean for an already stretched sector?
In recent months there has been mounting evidence of the hardship being faced by people on low incomes as they struggle to balance household budgets between food, rent, school costs and health and other needs.
Reporting on Sydney-based emergency relief recipients, ACOSS member Anglicare found that emergency relief services are 'increasingly dealing with more complex cases of hardship that are stretching services to capacity'. A Melbourne-based study by the Victorian Council of Social Service and partners concurred, indicating that while the vast majority of emergency relief recipients in that city were already receiving some form of government payment, 'the main reasons respondents identified for seeking emergency relief were having run out of food or money'. Only 11% of respondents were employed, 46% of whom were working casually, while only 12% had permanent full time jobs. Of those working, 58% had experienced a decrease in their wage or hours, or had had to leave a job since the introduction of WorkChoices in 2006.
Meanwhile in a recent report by another ACOSS member SANE Australia, almost one-third of respondents on low incomes were not registered with the Medicare Safety Net. In other words, even policies targeting those with the greatest need are not necessarily achieving their desired outcomes.
Even in the best of times, there is a persistent need for the health and social services provided by non-profit community organisations. Those needs are heightened during periods of recession and economic downturn. The struggle to meet daily costs with insufficient income is burdened by increasing expenses, from utility bills to grocery charges. At the same time, workers in low-income families increasingly circulate between long-term unemployment and periods of short-term, low-paid or casual employment.
These are the issues that the non-profit sector knows all too well. But what happens when that sector is struggling to sustain itself also? Across Australia, the margins between the costs of delivering social services and levels of funding for that service have been decreasing. Non-profit organisations are finding it harder and harder to meet minimum costs of staffing, let alone to provide adequate supervision and structure to enable those workers to remain engaged and effective in their work. As community needs rise, so do the demands on social services. Yet, without a proportionate increase in resources within a sector already stretched to its capacity, there is an ever-spiralling need to 'do more with less'.
These are the findings of an ACOSS consultation with its membership in preparation for a submission to the Productivity Commission's Not-for-profit Inquiry (this is available at www.acoss.org.au under Publications). Community and social services are proud of the diversity in the sector and remain committed to the sector's mission-driven objectives, including meeting unrecognised needs and reinvesting surplus back into the community.
However, ACOSS members are concerned that the lack of a profit motive is seen by some, including governments, as an opportunity for 'provision on the cheap'. Large organisations are frustrated by the range of funding and reporting requirements, leading to a perceived need for administrative expertise separate to the provision of good and effective services. Meanwhile, small organisations who are experienced in the needs of their local communities, able to respond flexibly to those needs, and are committed to developing their communities alongside their service and advocacy work, are increasingly marginalised from funding that is focused on large organisations with a greater reach.
The ACOSS submission to the Productivity Commission reasserts the willingness of the community and social services sector to work in partnership with the government and other funders to tackle entrenched disadvantage and unemployment and to achieve social inclusion. However that relationship needs to strike a better balance between the respective roles and responsibilities of government and the sector, and in terms of our common purpose in reducing social exclusion.
The need for regulatory reform is strongly articulated, in order to modernise and streamline the corporate definitions, structures, governance and taxation processes throughout the non-profit sector. In its submission, ACOSS reiterates its call for a single national regulator (a Not-for-Profit Commission) to steer these processes. Additionally, contracts and other funding from Government need to reflect the true cost of delivery, and low pay rates and under investment in basic IT, financial and other infrastructure must be addressed. The need for streamlining extends to the definitions used for data collection and reporting on programs, which currently are inadequate for measuring the impact and effectiveness of the sector.
Processes of communication are another key focus of the consultation. Sector organisations do not feel that there is a mutual relationship of information sharing between themselves and government. Current approaches to performance monitoring entrench this problem, prioritising performance indicators and outputs rather than informing service effectiveness and improving outcomes. These systemic problems in the relationship between government and the sector contribute to additional shortfalls, such as in the area of innovative approaches to community and welfare services.
Funding and support for innovative approaches must factor in a percentage of failure, just as we expect in science, health and business, to get leaps of innovation which may ultimately pay off many times over.
The consultation undertaken for our submission to the Productivity Commission built on previous ACOSS work, including our 2008 consultation on a Compact with Government. ACOSS is developing this work further in its representation and advocacy for a sustainable social and community services sector: a vital objective if we are to meet the needs of people living on low incomes and in disadvantaged communities efficiently and effectively.
By Tessa Boyd-Caine, Senior Policy Officer, ACOSS